Disclaimer: I didn't make up any of the characters or settings or anything like that (except Kirk, Addie and Nina). It's all owned by JK Rowling :)
Chapter One
"Well, that's all I have for this meeting. Does anyone have anything to add?" Lily said to the zoned out group of prefects sitting in front of her.
"Yeah, I have something," James said rather loudly, she thought mostly to wake people up. "Everyone, go get some sleep. And I promise that the next meeting will be kept under four hours," he said chuckling.
There were murmurs of thanks and grumbles about the time as the prefects all left the classroom heading back to their respective rooms, until only Lily and James were left. They silently cleaned up the bits of parchment and broken quills the prefects were attempting to take notes with and when everything was finished, left the room together and headed for Gryffindor tower, locking the classroom door behind them. As they walked through the darkened halls, they didn't say a word to each other. And for those closest to them, this was an unusual situation. They were always trading quips with one another, even when they were alone on nights like this after prefect meetings. But the last month had been different. Lily had started dating her current boyfriend, Kirk MacLeod, around the time that James had stopped talking to her, but she didn't think that there could be a connection. She'd dated before and that hadn't stopped James from torturing her and making fun of her, in public or in private. And she'd decided during the meeting that the silence had gone on long enough. She actually missed those talks, because for all James acted carefree and like he didn't care, he really was a serious person - almost as much as she was herself.
"James, can I ask you something?" Lily asked tentatively.
"Sure, I guess you can. But if you're going to ask me if I looked over the plans for the watch rotations, the answer is no. Quidditch has been beating everything on the importance scale. We're playing Slytherine for, basically, the House Cup in a few weeks 'cause no one else is even near us in the points except for them." He replied in a less than friendly tone, not even looking at Lily as he spoke.
"That's not what I was going to ask because I already knew the answer," she said chuckling, and then growing serious said, "I was going to ask why you've only been talking to me when everyone else is around. You'll poke fun at me when Sirius and Remus and Nina and Addie are around, but when it's just the two of us, you hardly say two words. Did I do something? Was it something that I said? Am I the reason you won't talk to me anymore?"
"Are you kidding me? What could you have possibly done? Lil you're perfect. You've never stepped a toe over the line. You're amazing in every class you take. Bloody hell you're even Head Girl. So no, it's definitely nothing you've done Lily." James said vehemently with an incredulous look on his face.
"Well, what is it then? Because I miss talking to you James, I really do…" She said, trailing off as James stopped walking.
"Do you really want to know? Or do you just want to know because you have to control every aspect of your life and right now I'm not fitting into your perfect plan? And think about your answer, because the way you answer determines everything that I'm going to say to you."
"Of course I want to know, and not just because I like to control my life. But because I'm scared that I'll lose our friendship if I don't ask, because God knows you bloody well won't say anything unless I pry it out of you."
"Well, here it goes. I like you Lily, I really like you. I have for a while and I didn't know how to handle it because we're friends. And then about a month ago I hear Kirk talking in the locker room after practice one day about how you guys have been hanging out a lot and that he'd finally gotten up the nerve to ask you to be his girlfriend and you'd said yes. I was flabbergasted. Here's a guy that probably doesn't know you half as well as I do and he's the one that got up the nerve to ask you out. And here's me, a guy that probably knows you better than Addie and Nina do and I chicken out every time I tell myself I'm going to ask you out. And as for the reason I haven't talked to you - it's because Kirk doesn't want me to. That same day he asked to talk to me privately, which I thought was about the quidditch game the following week and a strategy on how to not humiliate Hufflepuff, but it ended up being about my relationship with you. He told me that he didn't like how much we talked, and that since you had a boyfriend now, you didn't need me to talk to for a guy's perspective. He even said that you'd told him how uncomfortable it'd be since we were on the team together. I didn't think that he'd lie about something like that, so I just did what he asked and stopped talking to you." James finished, letting out a sigh as though he'd been holding his breath while he was talking.
"James… Why would I not want to talk to you? Even if I did, do you really think that I'd have Kirk do the dirty work for me? I've always been really straight forward with you James, why stop now? And why would you chicken out about asking me out? We can talk about anything," Lily said, looking up at James and wondering what she would have said even just a few months ago had James actually asked her out.
James looked down at her and just stared. His eyes searched her face and then their eyes locked. He opened his mouth, starting to say something, when they heard a slight rustle from down the corridor they'd turned from. James immediately turned around and peered around the corner, and the moment was broken. He turned around and mouthed "Filtch" and pointed to the door beside him. He turned the handle and motioned her inside, then followed close behind as he shut the door. They held their breath as they watched the flickering flame of the candle Filtch was holding pass by the door and disappear around the next corner. Lily and James waited a few extra minutes before cracking open the door and peeking outside to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that it was, they both let out a sigh of relief and walked out of the room.
"We should get back. It's getting late James." Lily said, starting to walk towards Gryffindor tower.
"Yeah, we probably should get going." James replied, and they walked in silence the rest of the way back.
When they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, they gave the password "Globwobble" and James motioned for Lily to go in first. As he walked in behind her, he bumped into her because she'd stopped. He looked up and started to say something to her, but saw what had made her stop so suddenly. It was Kirk, with his arms wrapped around Sylvia Whit, another seventh year student, but more on Kirk's level of experienced. James instantly saw red. He was enraged that Kirk would have someone as amazing as Lily and cheat on her with someone worth half as much.
James cleared his throat and Kirk and Sylvia jumped apart, startled that their late night rendezvous had been walked in on. "Excuse me, but I think you have some explaining to do Kirk. Sylvia, go to bed. Lil, will you be okay?" James announced, walking over and lightly guided Sylvia towards the girls' dormitory staircase. As he walked across the room, Kirk glared at him. When he glanced at Lily, she looked hurt, but straightened her shoulders when she met his eyes. James nodded, satisfied that Lily would be okay taking care of everything and said, "I'm heading up to my room, but if you need me Lil, you know where to find me."
